REVOKE() SQL Commands REVOKE()NAME
REVOKE - remove access privileges
SYNOPSIS
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE | REFERENCES | TRIGGER }
[,...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON [ TABLE ] tablename [, ...]
FROM { [ GROUP ] rolename | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { USAGE | SELECT | UPDATE }
[,...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON SEQUENCE sequencename [, ...]
FROM { [ GROUP ] rolename | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { CREATE | CONNECT | TEMPORARY | TEMP } [,...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON DATABASE dbname [, ...]
FROM { [ GROUP ] rolename | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ EXECUTE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON FUNCTION funcname ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [, ...] ] ) [, ...]
FROM { [ GROUP ] rolename | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON LANGUAGE langname [, ...]
FROM { [ GROUP ] rolename | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { CREATE | USAGE } [,...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON SCHEMA schemaname [, ...]
FROM { [ GROUP ] rolename | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ CREATE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TABLESPACE tablespacename [, ...]
FROM { [ GROUP ] rolename | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ ADMIN OPTION FOR ]
role [, ...] FROM rolename [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
DESCRIPTION
The REVOKE command revokes previously granted privileges from one or
more roles. The key word PUBLIC refers to the implicitly defined group
of all roles.
See the description of the GRANT [grant(7)] command for the meaning of
the privilege types.
Note that any particular role will have the sum of privileges granted
directly to it, privileges granted to any role it is presently a member
of, and privileges granted to PUBLIC. Thus, for example, revoking
SELECT privilege from PUBLIC does not necessarily mean that all roles
have lost SELECT privilege on the object: those who have it granted
directly or via another role will still have it.
If GRANT OPTION FOR is specified, only the grant option for the privi‐
lege is revoked, not the privilege itself. Otherwise, both the privi‐
lege and the grant option are revoked.
If a user holds a privilege with grant option and has granted it to
other users then the privileges held by those other users are called
dependent privileges. If the privilege or the grant option held by the
first user is being revoked and dependent privileges exist, those
dependent privileges are also revoked if CASCADE is specified; if it is
not, the revoke action will fail. This recursive revocation only
affects privileges that were granted through a chain of users that is
traceable to the user that is the subject of this REVOKE command.
Thus, the affected users might effectively keep the privilege if it was
also granted through other users.
When revoking membership in a role, GRANT OPTION is instead called
ADMIN OPTION, but the behavior is similar. Note also that this form of
the command does not allow the noise word GROUP.
NOTES
Use psql(1)'s \z command to display the privileges granted on existing
objects. See GRANT [grant(7)] for information about the format.
A user can only revoke privileges that were granted directly by that
user. If, for example, user A has granted a privilege with grant option
to user B, and user B has in turned granted it to user C, then user A
cannot revoke the privilege directly from C. Instead, user A could
revoke the grant option from user B and use the CASCADE option so that
the privilege is in turn revoked from user C. For another example, if
both A and B have granted the same privilege to C, A can revoke his own
grant but not B's grant, so C will still effectively have the privi‐
lege.
When a non-owner of an object attempts to REVOKE privileges on the
object, the command will fail outright if the user has no privileges
whatsoever on the object. As long as some privilege is available, the
command will proceed, but it will revoke only those privileges for
which the user has grant options. The REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES forms will
issue a warning message if no grant options are held, while the other
forms will issue a warning if grant options for any of the privileges
specifically named in the command are not held. (In principle these
statements apply to the object owner as well, but since the owner is
always treated as holding all grant options, the cases can never
occur.)
If a superuser chooses to issue a GRANT or REVOKE command, the command
is performed as though it were issued by the owner of the affected
object. Since all privileges ultimately come from the object owner
(possibly indirectly via chains of grant options), it is possible for a
superuser to revoke all privileges, but this might require use of CAS‐
CADE as stated above.
REVOKE can also be done by a role that is not the owner of the affected
object, but is a member of the role that owns the object, or is a mem‐
ber of a role that holds privileges WITH GRANT OPTION on the object. In
this case the command is performed as though it were issued by the con‐
taining role that actually owns the object or holds the privileges WITH
GRANT OPTION. For example, if table t1 is owned by role g1, of which
role u1 is a member, then u1 can revoke privileges on t1 that are
recorded as being granted by g1. This would include grants made by u1
as well as by other members of role g1.
If the role executing REVOKE holds privileges indirectly via more than
one role membership path, it is unspecified which containing role will
be used to perform the command. In such cases it is best practice to
use SET ROLE to become the specific role you want to do the REVOKE as.
Failure to do so might lead to revoking privileges other than the ones
you intended, or not revoking anything at all.
EXAMPLES
Revoke insert privilege for the public on table films:
REVOKE INSERT ON films FROM PUBLIC;
Revoke all privileges from user manuel on view kinds:
REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES ON kinds FROM manuel;
Note that this actually means ``revoke all privileges that I granted''.
Revoke membership in role admins from user joe:
REVOKE admins FROM joe;
COMPATIBILITY
The compatibility notes of the GRANT [grant(7)] command apply analo‐
gously to REVOKE. The keyword RESTRICT or CASCADE is required accord‐
ing to the standard, but PostgreSQL assumes RESTRICT by default.
SEE ALSO
GRANT [grant(7)]
SQL - Language Statements 2013-02-04 REVOKE()
